You can’ t surf a foam blank. Modern surfboards are fragile at their core and require a protective shell to shield them against the harsh physical abuse of surfing. Simply put, a surfboard would not be a surfboard without resin and fiberglass— unless, of course, it was made from wood or plastic. Most believe that the early Polynesians invented surfing and brought the sport to Hawaii. I personally
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believe it was the Norwegian Vikings, not the Hawaiians, who were the first surfers. You can’ t tell me that those Norsemen didn’ t try to surf at some point while traversing the coasts of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands. The Vikings were hardcore, and I bet they were also the original tow-in crews, using their seagoing clinker-build vessels to pull in fellow Vikes into those hidden Scandinavian pits. Did you know the word“ knarr” is the Norse term for ships that were built |
for Atlantic voyages? I’ d venture to suggest that the word“ knarrly” or“ gnarly” had its roots in the early Viking lexicon and is further proof of this theory. Anyway, let’ s get back to the Hawaiians.
Those early Hawaiian boards were made of wood. In 1949 Bob Simmons designed and built the first styrofoam core boards, using plywood veneers and sealed with resin. Then in 1958 Hobie Alter took that original Bob Simmons design one step further, producing boards
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with polyurethane foam cores while utilizing fiberglassing techniques using polyester resins to form the outer shell of the surfboard.
That brings us to the point of this article, historically speaking at least. Most surfboards have three resin layers that cover the foam core; the laminate coat, the hot coat, and lastly, the gloss coat. The majority of surfboards today are built with polyester resin and fiberglass cloth.
Wikipedia defines polyester resin as“ unsaturated resins formed by the
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30 DEEP SURF MAGAZINE March / April 2012 |